thanks for joining us on the news at noon. i'm deck deck in for -- i'm mike hydeck in for jc hayward today. what a gorgeous day. unseasonably warm weather. there it is. temperatures in the 60s but they are still headed in an

upward direction. meteorologist howard bernstein has your forecast. noontime temperatures just coming in now. we are 73 at national. temperatures headed toward 80 today. that's about 25 degrees above average and it's no wonder that things are blooming all over the place. take a look at the satellite and radar. plenty of sunshine for the rest of the afternoon. there's really nothing coming our way. had a couple of showers here and there yesterday but not that much going on. this morning with the clear skies, is terrible was chilly out there. had some 40s in spots west of washington. we got down to 54. look at this right now. 73 degrees at d.c. it's 77 in culpeper and orange. 71 even up in the shenandoah valley and la plata 73. so a gorgeous day ahead. i think some of the highs are headed toward 80s, the low 80s. the way it's going here, maybe 84 or so. the trends could be pushing toward the mid-80s. a gorgeous day. the records today in town are in the middle 80s, about 86.

tomorrow's record is 81 national and 82 dulles and bwi. i think we could challenge those. i'll tell you about that when i see you next. back to you. we are following breaking news now. jurors have started deliberations in the wrongful death lawsuit stemming from the 2007 mass killings at virginia tech. the jury of seven was given the case just moments ago after seven days of testimony. they will decide whether the decision of virginia tech officials to delay alerting students and faculty after the first shootings on campus allowed gunman seung-hui cho to go on and kill 30 more people. the family of two students killed have filed a negligence lawsuit. they contend their children and other victims might have escaped if authorities alerted campus earlier of those shootings. a little more than a year after japan suffered a devastating earthquake and tsunami, the island nation has experienced another strong tremor. however, today's 6.8 magnitude quake in the northern part of

the country caused no reports of injuries or damage. however, hours later a second quake rattled the tokyo area and again no reports of damage there either. there are now reports that surveillance footage has surfaced involving the u.s. soldier accused of killing 16 afghan villagers. defense secretary leon panetta is in afghanistan now getting briefed on what happened. >> reporter: secretary of defense leon panetta arrived in afghanistan for what's expected to be a difficult visit. >> as tragic as these events of violence have been, they do not define the relationship between the coalition and afghan forces and the afghan people. >> reporter: his trip was planned two months ago but now has new urgency since the u.s. soldier allegedly went on a shooting spree sunday. a 38-year-old staff sergeant is accused of going house to house

slaughtering 16 villagers, many of them women and children. an afghan official says there's surveillance video of him walking to his base, laying down his weapon and surrendering. the taliban has promised revenge. wednesday a bomb hidden in a motorcycle exploded not far from a delegation investigating the shooting. the explosion destroyed a building and killed an afghan intelligence official. tuesday an afghan soldier was killed when militants opened fire on government officials attending a service for the villagers. despite the isolated violence, afghans have not expressed the same anger that erupted last month after troops burned copies of the quran on a u.s. military base. panetta is said to meet with tribal leaders as well as president karzai during his two- day visit. >> u.s. officials continue to insist that only one soldier was involved in the shooting. investigators are now looking

into whether or not the suspect was drinking alcohol at the time of the attack. a judge ruled today that albrecht mmuth will remain in jail. he is charged with killing his wife. he was transferred to a mental facility last month after a doctor reported he was deloosal and hallucinating. montgomery county police believe a deadly shooting in kensington yesterday was a domestic dispute. 36-year-old heather mcguire's body was dumped at connecticut and knowles avenue yesterday. philip bill gearty -- gilberti committed the murder. will a high end casino end up in prince george's county? rushern baker is backing a plan for it. now a package at the statehouse in maryland has a hearing set

for friday. lawmakers are concerned that a casino at national harbor would threaten business at rose kroft raceway in the county. penn national gaming bought the track last year and reopened it last year with racing with hope it is would expand gaming there in the future. a federal grand jury wants to find out more about relationships between d.c. elected officials and businessman jeff thompson. federal agents raided thompson's home and offices earlier this month. we've learned that council members yvette alexander and jack evans were subpoenaed. council member vincent orange says he has not gotten one. however, he was forced to explain campaign contributions from people with ties to thompson. he spoke with our bruce johnson yesterday. >> what you would look at, there may be ten and the serial numbers are all running the same sequence. >> reporter: meaning they were probably bought at the same time? >> bought at the same time. however, the name may have been from georgia.

so that would raise a suspicion. >> reporter: you're talking about possible fraud here? >> i'm not going to make that determination. >> council members who received campaign contributions from jeff thompson say they are now starting to re-examine their records. we have new information we are hearing from radio shack about a rude incident at a store in montgomery county. we told you about shanea lewis recently. she returned something at that store and when she got her receipt back, it read, ugly itch, ghetto u.s.a., tattooville, maryland. the clerk called the whole thing a joke. lewis was not laughing. radio shack said, radio shack responded immediately after seeing reports in the media taking strongest possible disciplinary actions. they have tried to contact the customer involved and offer an apology but have been unable to

connect. still to come on the news at noon, find out why some may be concerned the washington monument suffered a little shrinkage during last year's earthquake.

welcome back to the news at noon. there's a new program at reagan national airport that could mean some really smoother sailing when it comes to security for some travelers. vivian is here with the details. she's president of west end travel. i first asked you, i said wait a minute, isn't this the thing people can get their fingerprint and sail through but you said that's a different program. >> that's different program. we're going to start with a new program called precheck. it's on a trial basis. it's starting at washington reagan on march 20 only with delta airlines. they have send over 420,000 of their most frequent flyers the application for this and offering it to them. when they go through security, there will be an embossment on their boarding pass which will allow them to go to a separate line. through there they will not have to take off their shoes or

jackets or take their laptops out. they will still have to go through the machine but it will expedite things for them. once it goes through the trial basis just with delta, it will be spreading to the other airlines that are at national. >> arguably and you know the program better than i do, this has something to do -- do they have to give their personal information, travel information? what do they have to submit? >> none -- there's no information being submitted which is very different from the global entry program which sponsors mostly international travelers. for the domestic travelers that be sent this application or sent this information, it will once again reflect by their frequent flyer number and print on their boarding passes and they will go through an expedited line. >> that's pretty cool. >> yes, how much time savings can we have? once again it's very important to stress they still will be going through security. they're not given a free pass to go around security. on the other hand the international program which is called global entry, there you will be filling out an application. you will also be paying for

this -- for the benefit and you will be paying $100. once your application is accepted and there's over 500,000 people that already have this in the united states, once you have this it's the same thing. you will then go for an interview which you'll be taught about the process and what you will be doing. you will give them your passport and you also do a fingerprint. so when you go up to security, you'll do your fringe gear print, give them -- fingerprint, give them your passport and you will go to a special line. you'll go through that line and be expedited. once you pass the global entry program, it will also tie the program in with precheck. so it will also allow you to access the domestic program. >> that's a lot to digest. we'll have more on our website. thank you. we'll be right back. howard has your forecast right after this.

i've been combing through the day's daily deals, e-mails and retailer websites to find you some deep discounts. here are some of my favorites. raise a cup of coffee. here's a deal for k-cups for the at home coffee brewing machine. it can be found at greenmountaincoffee.com. save ten% on tully brand coffee. a bag of k-cups will cost you $13.19, down from $16.49. we live in a digital world. that's why we need to have thumb drives handy. best buy's deal of the day is for a san disk switch, usb

flash drive for $19.99, regularly $69.99. if you need glasses, this is $200 to use towards eye glass lenses and frames at a visual affair in northwest washington in arlington and you're getting an 85% savings. if you have an offer you've seen or if you're a local merchant with a deal, i'd love to hear from you on facebook. i'm jessica doyle, 9news now. campaign 2012. conservative g.o.p. candidate rick santorum had a good night last night. he won two primaries in alabama and mississippi. those are two states newt gingrich was predicting that he would win. as danielle nottingham reports, those are also two states mitt romney campaigned pretty hard. >> we did it again. >> reporter: the former senator of pennsylvania picked up hard fought victories in the alabama and mississippi primaries. >> this campaign is about

ordinary folks dog extraordinary things, sort of like america. >> reporter: now he's -- now he says it's time for this to become a two-man race. santorum wants his fellow conservative newt gingrich to drop his bid for the white house, but the former house speaker appears ready to take the fight all the way to the g.o.p. convention in august. he says he's staying in because mitt romney is not the right choice for the party. >> frankly i do not believe that a massachusetts moderate who created romney care as the forerunner of obama compare is going to be in a position to win any debates this fall. >> reporter: but there's growing pressure on gingrich to call it quits. he campaigned hard in alabama and mississippi. at one point predicting he would win both states. now he admits he'll have to rework his strategy. mitt romney picked up wins in hawaii tuesday. now he's fighting to knock down

santorum's momentum. >> i'm the one guy in this race that can beat barack obama. >> reporter: romney leads in the delegate race. he's counting on that to help him lock in his party's nomination this summer. danielle nottingham, sbs news, the white -- cbs news, the white house. the campaign moves to the midwest and puerto rico. voters in missouri had for their caucuses on saturday. illinois has a primary set for next tuesday. well, did the washington monument shrink or even tilt after last summer's 5.8 magnitude quake in the d.c. area? surveyors are now working to find that out. they took some measurements yesterday and will compare them to past records. the findings from yesterday's tests could affect how the crews repair the monument. it has sunk about 2 inches in the ground since it was completed. >> the whole area used to be a swamp. that's why it settled those two inches. it could have moved a little bit. >> you could compare buildings

in other cities that have probably sunk equally. >> exactly. it's warm out? >> all that warmth is doing a number on the trees and the plants. things are starting to bloom and blossom. the allergy count is where i want to start. it hasn't changed in the low and the high areas but the numbers have come up. you'll see the tree pollen is in the high category today. that number is up to 224 grams per cubic meter. that's higher than yesterday. even the mold is in the 2900 range. still considered low on that scale but higher than yesterday. we're going to see these numbers continue to increase, especially with the warm weather around. today really warm for this time of year. about 25 degrees above average. 75 here coming up in the next few hours. 77 at 5:00. we might just get to 80 with the right wind direction today. if the winds turn more southwesterly and off shore breeze as opposed on shore at national, we'll get there. some areas to the south and west going into the low 80s. this evening temperatures start to drop off.

by 9:00 upper 60s. we should see a lot of sunshine throughout the day. right now still some 60s in hagerstown. gorgeous at 68. but fredricksburg is 79. culpeper 77. it could be mid-80s down here this afternoon with easton at 72. locally we're as warm as 75 in craftton right now. we're looking'' crofton right now. we're looking at reston and fairfax 72. just a fantastic noon hour. looking outside on our michael & son weather camera, lots of sunshine. just some contrast from the airplanes and a couple of cirrus clouds. that's it. the dew point has dropped to 40. with calm winds it is a perfect day to be outside and enjoy across much of the eastern and central u.s. out west this is where the storminess is. when you get the storminess on the west coast, that brings in some cooler and unsettled air. for the east it rises the jet stream. while it's coming on shore in the west, it's going way up into canada north of us. underneath it we have high pressure and these very warm

unseasonably warm readings which are going to be us with maybe another week, week and a half the way things are looking. future cast is all quiet today and tonight. tomorrow we'll have more of a southwesterly wind. i think temperatures are going to be a little warmer into the lower 80s. the rorpds tomorrow -- records tomorrow definitely attainable. we're going to make a run at the rorpds. we're also -- records. we're also going to see a couple showers and storms pop in the afternoon. tomorrow quiet till friday morning. then friday here comes some showers and thunderstorms across the region. so with more showers around, more clouds, it won't be as warm but still going to be way above average. temperatures today upper 70s in d.c. some areas south could be like 85. 50s tonight with a couple of 40s in the suburbs. tomorrow 81. isolated afternoon shower or thunderstorm. friday more showers and storms, in the mid-70s. then as we head toward the weekend, st. patrick's day not bad. 74, slight chance of a shower. actually looks pretty good for

the suntrust rock 'n' roll u.s.a. marathon in the morning with temperatures in the 60s. sunday through tuesday still looks beautiful. we're going to the kitchen. got the sisters making sandwiches. we'll explain when 9news now returns.

you hungry? this is a great time to be in this kitchen. with me, two sisters, sandwiches and such, the lovely tammy and kim. they renovated a beautiful antique home in olney into a great sandwich shop.

you know what? it's tournament time here. ncaa tournament. a lot of us in the newsroom and maybe you at home have filled out your brackets. you want to sit down in front of the tv, plunk down and just eat. you don't want to look at forks and spoons or any of that stuff. you're working on a santsdz witch here -- sandwich here. among the choices we have are? >> this is buffalo mozzarella and tomatoes and fresh basil. it's awesome. this is called the smasher. it has potato chips on t. our hangover sandwich. this is our rube: we do our own -- reuben. we do our own sauerkraut. this over here is our jacked up roast beef. >> what's jacked up roast beef and why do you call it that? >> it's a funny story. our plumber that was helping us renovate came up with the story. they all have great stories. >> tell me what's on this one.

>> that's our turkey avocado, red onions and our special sauce which is a lemon basil and lettuce. >> that looks like some whole grain. >> a multigrain bread which is fabulous. >> we've got about a minute left. if you are not into the whole ncaa tournament thing or you're a sports watcher and plunked in front of the tv, you want to do something a little more gourmet, kim will tell us what this is. it smells fantastic. >> this is our vegetable soup. we make it fresh every morning. we saute the olive oil and put in all the vegetables. we saute it and ad -- we have some vegetable stock. it's vegan, vegetarian so it covers all the bases. we just keep adding stuff and let it simmer. i made a pot and brought it today so everybody could try that. >> oh, my goodness, it smells great. >> i wanted to say our dressings, too, are homemade and fresh. we make everything here in the mornings. our baguettes we bake. >> we some some people in our

newsroom who lives close you to and brags how fresh everything is. you definitely have that reputation. sisters, sister sandwiches and such in olney. we'll link you to it at our website. that's it for the news at noon. enjoy the weather.